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Cryptomining blocker

Attacks by cryptocurrency mining malware soared by 450% last year. While it might not steal your data, cryptojacking will make your system suffer – stealing computer resources to solve the complex computational problems needed to mine cryptocurrencies. Attacks do more than slow your computer’s performance, they often introduce ransomware and other malware while they have access to your system.

Acronis Active Protection stops that threat by automatically detecting and stopping cryptominers in real time. This addition to the Acronis cyber protection arsenal means your system and network resources are used by you and you alone.

Stopping illicit miners

The boom in cryptocurrencies and their promise of easy money led to an explosion of cryptomining tools last year. The good news is that Acronis Active Protection, our artificial intelligence-based defense, keeps your system from being compromised.

Terminates cryptominers

Stops standalone cryptomining malware that is often packaged with ransomware and other threats

Alerts you to threats

Notifies you immediately when an attack is detected on your Windows PC so you can block it

Blocks future attacks

Updates the behavioral heuristics used to detect attacks so it recognizes new malicious miners

Looking for help?

Frequently asked questions

What is cryptojacking?

With carjacking, a crook jumps in and takes control of your car. With cryptojacking, online criminals use malware to secretly use the computing resources of your system to mine cryptocurrency – which requires tremendous processing power to calculate exceptionally complex digital equations, called hashes. While the malware does not steal your data, it robs you of considerable system resources, slowing your computer’s performance and significantly increasing your energy use.

Sometimes cryptocurrency mining malware is injected into your system, piggybacking on apps or running in the background hoping to go unnoticed. Other times the malware attacks via your web browser when you go to an infected website and runs as long as you are connected to that site.

What’s the best way and, if so how, to spot Bitcoin miner malware?

Since cryptomining demands a lot of processing power, your CPU will be asked to work overtime. If you want to test a PC for mining malware, open your system’s resource monitor (Task Manager for Windows, Activity Monitor for Macs) to see if the CPU use is unusually high. If you’ve closed all the apps on your system and the CPU is still in overdrive, or if CPU use spikes when you visit a specific website, then you may have a cryptominer at work.

How to stop mining malware?

Since there are two types cryptominers – browser-based and injection-based – you need to take steps to prevent both types of attacks.

For browser-based attacks, the first thing is to determine if your preferred web browser already has an extension available to stop bitcoin mining. Malware detection solutions are available from most popular browsers (e.g. Chrome’s No Coin), and there are plenty of open source extensions available as well.

In the case of injection-based attacks that load the malware onto your system, you’ll need a bitcoin miner scanner. Acronis True Image includes an AI-based cryptomining blocker as part of the integrated Acronis Active Protection technology. So not only do you get the backup and anti-ransomware solution you need to protect your data, your system has a built-in defense against cryptominers.